Chipotle restaurants are running out of food

Chipotle is facing an “increasingly frequent problem” in its restaurants: food shortages.

Restaurants are miscalculating demand and not making enough food, so when customers visit, certain ingredients aren’t immediately available.

“Running out of food its a very common occurrence at Chipotle,” Mark Crumpacker, the burrito chain’s chief marketing officer, said Monday on a call with analysts. “It’s hard to do — to keep up with the demands in exactly the right way.”

Customer complaints about food shortages have increased recently, according to Chipotle’s internal surveys.

“Given the ongoing challenges facing the company, the board felt strongly that it was best for Steve to resume leadership of the company going forward,” Neil Flanzraich, the lead director of Chipotle’s board, said in a statement.

Ells said Chipotle’s operations had become “overcomplicated” and the company needed to “act with a sense of urgency toward all of the changes we are pursuing” after the E. coli outbreak.

The management changes were announced a few days after executives admitted they were getting nervous about meeting the 2017 guidance that the company issued in October.

Chipotle had said in October that it was expecting same-store sales growth in the high single digits next year — so anywhere from 6% to 9%.